(( Logical link and Session management)) towards the MS.

The
SGSN uses the Radio Recourses controlled by the BSS to
establish a connection to the MS. Such a logical link
identifies a user over the access network. A session is a
connection over the Gn interface.
In Ericsson�s implementation, only the UE/MS may initiate
a PS connection and does so by sending a Setup message to
the SGSN. In the GSM system implementation the BSC is
ordered to allocate GPRS resources to be used by the MS.

((Packet routing & transfer.)) The SGSN handles the packet

routing to proper BSC and GGSN. Towards the BSC the
handover function follows the MS while it moves in the
network. The routing to GGSN is established in the
beginning of the PS session when a context is activated for
the user. A part of the session, PDP context identity, is used
for the packet routing towards the GGSN.

PCU ::
The PCU consists of:
� Central software (CP)
� Additional boards
� Regional software on the additional boards
The main additional board is called RPP. The function of the RPP is
to distribute data packets between Gb and A-bis. The PCU is
responsible for handling the BSSGP and Network Service layer of
the Gb-interface and Radio Link Control (RLC), Medium Access
Control (MAC) and the physical protocol layers on the Abisinterface.
The PCU distributes data packets between the Gbinterface
and the Abis-interface by segmentation/assembly of LLC
frames into/from RLC/MAC radio blocks.
The PCU can be expanded to contain several interconnected RPPs.
Each RPP has two DL2 connections, DL2-0 and DL2-1, each
consisting of 32 64 kbps GPH-devices. Each GPH device can be
configured for the Abis interface or for the Gb interface.

Abis Utilization ::
A PDCH for GPRS using CS1 and CS2 occupies � of an 64 kbps
channel on the Abis interface.
MCS 1-9 are used one PDCH is carried on a whole Abis 64 kbps
TS as shown in the figure above. Such a PDCH is even called
EPDCH. The same utilization is performed when using CS3 and
CS4.

� Logical Link Management Functions. Logical link management

functions are concerned with the maintenance of a
communication channel between an individual MS and the
PLMN across the radio interface. These functions involve the
co-ordination of link state information between the MS and the
PLMN as well as the supervision of data transfer activity over
the logical link

There are two GPRS radio resource

operating mode.
Packet Idle mode, when no packets are transferred. In
packet idle mode, the MS listens to the PBCCH and to
the paging sub-channel for the paging group the MS
belongs to in idle mode. If PCCCH is not present in the
cell, the mobile station listens to the BCCH and to the

relevant paging sub-channels. When MS is in Packet Idle

Mode, it can still be in Ready State on mobility
management level, if the ready timer hasn�t timed out.
Here the MS will not have a TFI and there is no TBF.
Packet Transfer mode. A packet transfer is ongoing in
uplink, downlink or in both directions simultaneously.
When selecting a new cell, mobile station leaves the
packet transfer mode, enters the packet idle mode where
it switches to the new cell, read the system information
and may then resume to packet transfer mode in the new
cell. Packet transfer is going on and the MS has an
assigned TFI. It is always in Ready State of mobility.

The Radio Resource Management Functions contain the

following sub-functions:
Cell Selection and Reselection
Power Regulation

RLC/MAC LLC SNDCP IP Application+TCP

Application ::http client (browser)

SNDCP SNDCP that then performs multiplexing of data coming from the different
sources to be sent across LLC.

LLC : provides a reliable logical link between the MS and its SGSN.
The LLC connection is maintained as the MS moves between cells served by the same
SGSN.

RLC provides a radio-solution-dependent reliable link.

MAC controls the access signaling (request and grant) procedures for the radio
channel, and the mapping of LLC frames onto the GSM physical channel (also referred
to as GSM RF).

20ms one Radio Block 4 Burst

Each radio block is sent in four consecutive bursts on one time slot
(TS).

Temporary Block Flow (TBF).(The transmission of packets to or from a certain MS)

TFI) Each TBF is addressed by a Temporary Flow Identity (TFI)

When TBS is assigned.

the MS is informed of which time slot(s) to use and its TFI address. A number of
MSs can be assigned resources on the
same time slot(s).

Uplink State Flag (USF).The USF is used to notify the MS with uplink TBFs on that
time slot, which one of them that may send an uplink radio block in the next group
of four bursts.

RLC/MAC layer performs retransmission of erroneous radio blocks.

Network controlled handovers are not used in the GPRS service. MS performed cell-
reselection is used.

A physical channel carrying GPRS/EGPRS traffic is called PDCH.

PSET:
(PDCH) are allocated in sets of maximum eight time slots per carrier. Such a set is
called a
PSET and can consist of both dedicated and on-demand PDCH.

Dedicated PDCHs ensure that there are always GPRS resources in a cell.

GPRS/EGPRS Radio Resource Allocation :::

((Packet Downlink Assignment)) is sent to the mobile phone. This

message contains the time slots that will be used for downlink
transfer and a temporary MS identity called TFI.

GPRS allows data rates of 115 kbps and,

theoretically, of up to 160 kbps on the physical layer. EGPRS is
capable of offering data rates of 384 kbps and, theoretically, of up
to 473.6 kbps.

Figure 1-18. Coding schemes for GPRS and EGPRS (user data rate).

measuremetns report >> LA alogirthm BSC >>> next radio blocks (e.g.,
numbers 1 to 4) with CS3. During the transmission of these
packages, the carrier-to-interference ratio (C/I)

link adaptation ::
As a result, the link adaptation for GPRS requires careful selection
of the coding scheme in order to avoid retransmissions

Addressing window ::
If an erroneously decoded packet must be retransmitted,
In EGPRS, the addressing numbers have been increased to 2048
and the window has been increased to 1024 in order to minimize
the risk for stalling.

Measurement accuracy
A mean BEP is calculated per radio block (four bursts) as well as
the variation (standard deviation of the BEP estimation divided by
the mean BEP) over the four bursts.

Interleaving
To increase the performance of the higher coding schemes in
EGPRS (MCS7 to MCS9) even at low C/I

Link Quality Control (LQC).(MCS)

MCS maximizing the data rate, depending on
the estimate of the current C/I. Another method is Incremental
Redundancy (IR)

Incremental Redundancy (IR)

Incremental redundancy initially uses a coding scheme, such as
MCS9, with very little error protection and without consideration
for the actual radio link quality.
Applying incremental redundancy makes it possible to use very
little coding at first and then increase it if necessary. The receiver is
using soft combining to gain from the function. As shown in the
figure above the ((MCS9 becomes more robust than MCS5 for
similar bit rate))

Coding Max no of Max data rate Target C/I

Info bits per TS (kbps) (dB)
CS-1 181 9.05 ~6
CS-4 428 21.4 ~17

The Abis interface must be upgraded for handling of EGPRS and

CS3-CS3 traffic

2 Radio Network Dimensioning

Four time slots could then be used

for GPRS given by the following relation.

mean PDCH = # TCH - mean speech traffic (served)

A cell with 3 TRX, 22 TCH and GOS =2% can serve a traffic of
14,9 Erl

Service quality
- Bit rate
- Delay

No. of PDCH
- Dedicated
- On-demand
Coding Scheme

Depends on
application
- text
- pictures

Network characteristics:
1/3 Reuse pattern
50k GPRS users
1500 cells, 3 TRX (in average)
speech traffic, 2% GoS
Frequency load 8
Output:
1) Network
- 1/3 Reuse pattern
2) GPRS_load in cell
- 2400 kb downloaded during busy hour
- 1 h = 3600 s
- average information bit rate = 2400/3600 # 0.67 kbps
- 50k active users
- 1500 cells # 50k/1500 # 33 users per cell
- WWW load 33*0.67=22.1 kbps
3&4) Number of PDCHs per cell
3 TRX ?? 22 TCH
2% GoS ?? 14.6 (served traffic)
PDCH = 22-14.6 ?? 7.4 (in average)
5) Calculate GPRS load per PDCH
7.4 PDCH per cell

WWW load � 22.1 kbps /7.4 # 3.0 kbps/pdch

6) Can the load be handled?
1.1 x 3.0kbps=3.3kbps < 20kbps. OK
7) Calculate the frequency load.
- Frequency load is given as 8%

8) Find estimated throughput from �mapping� graph.

Answer: Throughput with existing HW: 48 kbps

GPRS Traffic Simulator ????????/

page64

Dimensioning Flow chart Page 68 ::

1. START
2. Make assumptions:
Voice volume, Data volume including required average throughput, MS multislot class
3. Drive test - Estimate the RLC bitrate per PDCH for PDCHCS2_conf, PDCHCS4_conf
4. Derive the �GPRS dimensioning characteristics� diagram for the cell
5. Make a new assumption about total # of TRXs and # of PDCHCS4_conf
6. From the voice traffic volume, estimate average # of PDCHs in the cell
and calculate average number of PDCHCS2_conf.
7. Using the graph in step 4 to evaluate the configuration.

Desired
Throughput
and load? Yes or no

Stop

Determine the average number of available PDCHs per cell (pdch)

For on-demand channels, the average available PDCHs during the
GPRS busy hour can be expressed as
pdch = TCH - CS_Served_Traffic
or
pdch = TCH - CS_Offered_Traffic (1 � GoS)
Calculate the average number of CS2 capable PDCHs per cell
(pdch CS2)
pdchCS2 = pdch - pdchCS4
The number of pdchCS2 must be at least the same as the multislot
class.

RADIO NETWORK DIMENSIONING-EGPRS CASE Page 78 ::

Frequency Load
The frequency load reflects how large fraction of the time a
frequency is being transmitted by cell (or a site), normalized with
the maximum 8-PSK output power (downlink). The higher the
Frequency Load, the more users are active in the cell which leads
to have lower throughput per user in the cell. The total Frequency
Load, FLtot, can be estimated by:

Page 83 ::
Example 3:
The Frequency Load in a classic 4/12 frequency group is desired.
Assume 3 TRXs in the frequency group with BTS PC and
downlink DTX active. Assume further an estimated traffic of 13.2
Erlang, no active PDCHs with GPRS traffic and no active PDCHs
with EGPRS traffic in the frequency group.

Example 4: Page 86 Very important ::

Example 5:
Consider the cell in example 4 above. Assume the channels on
TRX A to be planned in a separate 4/12 re-use BCCH frequency
group. From Table 1 we find the average EGPRS bandwidth on
each EGPRS channel in such a frequency group to be 42 kbps. In
example 4 we derived the average number of EGPRS channels in
the cell to be 6.85 so we calculate the total EGPRS radio link
bandwidth in the cell to:

3 GPRS/EGPRS Network Performance

CATEGORIZING OF THE KPIS

The following KPIs are defined in PS domain.

Accessibility (TBF and CCCH Request Failure Rate)
Retainability (TBF pre-emption rate & Mean Time between
TBF pre-emption)
QoS (LLC Throughput & TBF
load)
Accessibility::
the user must be able to access GPRS as such, meaning he must
be able to do a GPRS attach and a PDP context activation

retainability::
the ability of the user to keep a service � once it was accessed

manual re-activation of the PDP context.

Integrity
Integrity indicates the degree to which a service is provided
without major interferences, once it was accessed.

The most important one is the �LLC Throughput Counter�.

It measures the average throughput the BSS provides for the
Transfer of LLC PDUs. It is measured per cell and per QoS class,
uplink and downlink separately.

BSC Level Counters (Object type = BSCGPRS)

Some BSCGPRS counters

Counter Description
DISCDL
Incremented each time an error is detected on a PCU frame on the
physical link layer on the downlink (the link between the BTS, CCU
and the PCU). An error can be DL block error.

======================================================

KPI Description Formula Comments

%Discarded PCU
Frames DL

The percentage of DL PCU

frames discarded due to errors
compare to total.

100 * DISCDL / (4 * RBCDL)

To be measured on DAILY Busy Hour

RBCDL must be on BSC level aggregated

It is also considered that a frame splits to
four RLC/MAC blocks.
This KPI measures system integrity
and should be closed to zero.
If > 0.2% then check RPP capacity
(PCU congestion) and h/w robustness.

KPI ::

% PCU
Congestion

====================================================

BSC Level Counters (Object type = BSCGPRS2)

This Object Type is used to give the operator the possibility to
obtain statistics about the PCU-RP processor load per RP.

GPRS/EGPRS Quality of Service Measurements per BSC -object type

DELSTRTBF

GPRS/EGPRS TRAFFIC CELL - COUNTERS AND KPIS

GPRS/EGPRS Traffic Load per Cell - TRAFDLGPRS and TRAFULGPRS

statistics about the number of simultaneous TBFs on each PDCH, separately for each
PDCH type and the downlink QoS weights per PDCH separately for each PDCH type.

Page 105 ::

Object Type = TRAFDLGPRS (UL/DL GPRS Traffic Load counters per cell)
Counter-name Description
TRAFFxLGPRSSCAN
(x=U,D)
Number of accumulation of xL TBFs and PDCHs.
TBFxLGPRS Number of simultaneous xL TBF for GPRS in a cell.
TBFxLEGPRS Number of simultaneous xL TBF for EGPRS in a
cell.
xLBPDCH Number of B-PDCH that carried one or more xL TBF
of any mode.
xLGPDCH Number of G-PDCH that carried one or more xL TBF
of any mode.
xLEPDCH Number of E-PDCH that carried one or more xL TBF
of any mode.
xLTBFPBPDCH Sum of simultaneous xL TBF (all TBF modes) on
each and every B-PDCH.

Cell level counters (Object type = CELLGPRS)

The ALLPDCHACTACC counter contains the number of

PDCHs carrying packet traffic per cell.

PREEMPTTBF Number of released TBFs due to preemption.

MOVECELLTBF Number of released TBFs due to move of cell.
CELLMOVED Number of times a cell is moved to another RP.

Cell level KPIs (Object type = CELLGPRS)

PDCH allocation
failure rate %
It gives the percentage of failed
PDCH allocations, related to all
the allocation attempts.
100 * PCHALLFAIL / PCHALLATT
To be measured on DAILY Busy Hour
This KPI measures accessibility on air
interface. PCU capacity limitations are
also included. It is better to use TBF
accessibility (see R9.1 KPI) instead of
PDCH, since requests for adding
timeslots to a GPRS connection are
also counted.
If > 10% then consider to add more
Fixed PDCHs or TRXs.

CCCHLOAD counters and KPIs (Object type = CCCHLOAD)

Page 126 ::
Accessibility
These KPIs should be measured on Daily Busy Hour
measurements.

KPI Comments
% Of TBF Failed
Requests
(Cell PDCH bottleneck)
This KPI measures TBF accessibility in radio resources downlink.
Failed TBF > 2% means that the cell is congested.
% Of Immediate
Assignment reject
(Cell CCCH bottleneck)
Under normal situations CCCH should not discard PS assignment
requests.
If not, this means that CP or RPD are overload.
% PCU Congestion
(PCU bottleneck)
PCU should always have enough resources in order to provide the
required number of PDCH on the air interface. So counter
ALLPDCHPCUFAIL should be always zero.
If not then more RPP are needed. Also reducing the PITIMER and Fixed
PDCH will help for a while.

Retainability
KPI Comments
Mean Time between
TBF pre-emption
The counter TBFPREEMPSET can be used to measure retainability.
GPRSPRIO parameter controls in which case pre-emption is
allowed..
% Of TBF Pre-emption
The percentage of failed DL TBF establishment requests due to lack
of resources related to total requests.
If > 2 % then consider to add fixed PDCH or change GPRSPRIO
parameter to prevent pre-emption.
GPRSPRIO parameter controls in which case pre-emption is
allowed.
QoS
KPI Comments
LLCTHRUL
Uplink LLC throughput. If these measures fall bellow the 20-15 Kbps
this means that:
a) These cells experience overload (check then TBFPULAVE)
or
b) The radio link environment is poor (check retransmissions).

Capacity � Volume
KPI Comments
PSUSE
Should be compared with the total GSL devices provided by the
RPPs in order to get the PCU utilisation.
100 * PSUSE / No of GSL should be less or equal than 50%.
If > 80% then PCU should be expanded with RPPs.
Data volume UL
(Mbytes)
The total amount of data transferred through RLC/MAC blocks in the
air interface uplink